In some parts of
Europe, Church registers date back to the 14th or 15th century.
In Norway, however, the oldest church register, that of Andebu in Vestfold,
starts in the year 1623. In addition, only a few Norwegian church registers
precede 1650; they are: Bragernes 1634-, Tingvold 1645, Trøgstad
1645-, Vår Frelsers in Oslo 1648, Heddal 1648-, and Sauherad 1649-.

Originally, it was the vicar
himself who decided whether to keep a church register, in some form or
another. In 1668, however, an assembly of deans from the diocese of Bergen
ordered the vicars to register baptisms and marriages. Unfortunately the
result was not impressive. There are very few parish districts from Bergen
diocese that have church registers from 1668.

A Church Ritual in 1685 set
forth general rules for the registration of baptisms. One had to include
the name of the baptised child, its parents, and its god fathers/mothers.
The same Church Ritual also had rules for the registration of the engagements,
which had to include the witnesses, and for the registration of burials.

The Norwegian Law of 1687
confirmed the order to keep church registers. The decision of the Church
Ritual and the Norwegian Law came into force autumn 1688. Henceforth, every
vicar in Norway was obliged to keep a church register. Naturally therefore,
a lot of the registers start in 1688. Nevertheless in some parishes the
earliest volumes begin in the 18th century. Although, some of the volumes
may have been lost, there were also a lot of priests who deliberately overlooked
the order. Furthermore, there are parishes that have records starting in
1688, but that have later periods without any registration.

Although the clergy were
obliged to keep a register, no one decided how it should be done. Thus,
some vicars have kept their records neatly chronological, while others
have separated the different clerical events into baptisms, marriages,
burials etc. Since the church register was, for quite some time, the sole
official protocol for the clergy, the vicars could sometimes include notes
on estate and economic affairs, or other official business.

While it was common to register
the clerical events such as baptisms and burials, neither birth dates nor
dates of death were noted. The older church registers will, therefore,
more often than not, have the dates of baptism and burial instead of the
day of birth and death. Normally, the child would be baptised within its
first eight days (in 1814, a rescript decided one could wait until nine
months after birth), but it could take weeks, months, even a year after
the actual death took place before the interment of a deceased. In the
winter especially, conditions could prevent burials due to the ground being
frozen. On the other hand one should not omit the possibility that the
priest actually forgot to record the burial.

The 24 December 1732, bishop
Hersleb of Akershus distributed a circulaire with rules about how to keep
church registers. The register should be divided in three parts (baptism,
engagement, funeral). The baptised child was to be recorded with its name,
the names of its parents, godfathers and godmothers. There should be a
note if the child was legitimate or illegitimate and also the date of the
mother's "introduction" (a ceremony in which the mother is led into the
church by the priest some time after the birth -- a ritual showing her
reintroduction to the congregation). Under the engagement section, the
names of the engaged and their witnesses were to be recorded, as well as
where the ceremony took place. The buried should be registered with name,
age and date of interment. Hersleb further suggested that one kept notes
on "de publique absolverede" – those who had to do their confessions in
public. (Mainly women who gave birth without being married, but it could
also be others who had broken the church's rules and hence should suffer
the church's discipline.)

The rescript of 1 December
1812 introduced printed forms to be used as church registers. Now the
church registers were divided in seven sections:

Sections

Information

Births

Birth and baptism date

Parents’ names and position

Godfathers and mothers

Separate records for males and
females

Deaths

Death and burial date

Age, occupation, residence

Separate records for males and
females

Marriages

Marriage date

Names on bride/groom

Age, occupation, residence of
groom

Name of witnesses

Confirmations

Name

Baptism date

Residence

Parents’ name or the name of
the head of household

Vaccination date

The candidates' knowledge of
the catechism, and their behaviour

Separate records for males and
females

List
of migrants from the parish

Name

Age

Occupation

To where

Liist
of migrants to the parish

Name

Age

Occupation

From where

Comparison
form

Meant for keeping track of the
different clerical events each individual had participated in

The rescript also
stated that the parish clerk should keep a duplicate register. This way
the priest and clerk could compare notes twice a year and correct mistakes
or omissions. The protocols were never to be kept in the same house so
that there would exist a copy if one of them should be destroyed. In some
places one stopped writing the duplicate after just a couple of years,
but from the 1850s one can find whole series of duplicate registers. In
the 1970s, the duplicates ceased in many places.

As a result of complaints
on the 1812-rescript, new rules were given in a rescript of 2 December
1820. There were still forms to be filled and the rules were:

Record baptism, confirmation,
marriage, burial, emi- and immigration, as well as vaccination

Separate recording for the daily
ministerial duties, including when and where he held sermon, topic of the
sermon, announcements, number of communicants, reintroductions of mothers,
etc.

The vicar himself decides the
size of the book, but it should be large enough to last for ten years

The rules from 1820
were unchanged until 1877, when the royal resolution of 13 July
was issued, followed by a circulaire from the Ministry of Church Affairs.
It said among other things:

Every local parish (except if
the local parish included both a town and a rural district, and thus should
be regarded as separate from each other) should have a church register
containing the forms included in the circulaire. The parish priest was
responsible for the registration. As it had always been, the church paid
the book and paper expenses.

There were nine sections in
the new form: Births, stillborn, confirmations, marriages, deaths, immigration,
emigration, new members of the State Church, and ceased members of the
State Church.

Dissenters should be registered
on the last pages with their births, deaths, and marriages; as well as
additional notes on which community they belonged to, and who had given
the information. There were a separate protocol for the local parishes
with a large share of dissenters.

The daily ministerial duties
were written in a separate section.

The priest decided for himself
the size of the book, but he should calculate for at least ten years usage.

The curates should also keep
a day register of his duties.

The were also rules on
what to do in specific cases:

Babies born alive, although
dead after a short while would still be recorded under the section for
living babies; only stillborn babies were recorded as such.

There was to be an extra note
about babies who died prior to baptism.

If it was difficult to give
an exact date of birth, one should estimate a period, although not above
five years.

If the parents of a child were
not married until the time of birth, the child should be recorded as illegitimate.
However, if the parents married before baptism, a note should be made.
One should also note if the parents got married later.

If the priest doubted the correctness
of an announced father/mother, he should confront the said person and get
a denial/confirmation and a make note of this in the church register

Under the category 'occupation',
the main trade/occupation should be listed first, followed by any side
occupation

Under the section for deaths,
one should also include the dead bodies that were never found.

If a clerical action involved
a person not originating from the local parish, it should still be registered
with a serial number and a report should be sent to the local parish he/she
originated from, where it would be fully recorded. If it was a different
local parish, but in the same parish district, it was not necessary with
a full recording in the church register of the home local parish, but a
short summary and reference to the church register in the local parish
where the actual event took place.

These rules were unchanged,
for the most part, until 1920 whenome minor adjustments were mad
(only the adjustments listed):

- Under marriages, one should
note the family relationships between the partners following certain rules:

Are the couple related to each
other?

If yes, in what form?

If the relationship is more
distant than second cousins (grandfather/mother is brother and sister),
there is no need for more notes on this matter.

The reliability
of church registers

The more recent church registers
are very reliable. Since Norway has a state church including nearly the
entire population, one must expect to find information in the registers
on nearly everyone in the different parishes. However, earlier church registers
will not always have full information on the individuals, especially funerals
where the priest more often than not, recorded his own actions, instead
of the actual number of funerals. The priests were often called upon only
for the interment and thus he did not record it. Indeed he may not have
attended. In a number of church registers from the 18th century,
on must assume that less than half of the deaths are recorded.

Furthermore, on should be
aware of the information on the fathers of illegitimate children in the
older church registers. The mother often gave this information and for
quite a long time (until the second half of the 19th century), the judicial
conditions were of such that the mother could benefit from giving a different
name than the actual father.